Electrical Problem

daggy

I recently posted a topic about wiring a lightswitch

We ascertained that the lightswitch was tripping the rcd as the live wire insulation was broken.

I think this has actually been there for a while as a few months ago the u/lights tripped and the sparky didn't know why, but they came back on after the switch in the cu was reset.

Anyway, our house is privately rented and I've just rang up to get a sparky out, but the operator thinks that an exposed live wire is not an emegency fault... I've put some insulation tape around the wire for now, but I can't attach the lightswitch to the wall in case it shorts the lights again...

If I want a sparky to come out, they will charge me a fee because I took the socket off the wall... even though the fault has been present for a long time.

is this an emergency? Am I liable or should the landlord pay?

macman

No, it's not an emergency, you can just isolate the circuit until the sparky can come out.
Unless you caused the fault, then it's down to the landlord to pay.

ormus

a light not working is hardly an emergency situation.

daggy

Cool beans... done now...

It was the exposed wire I was worried about and having no lights upstairs is not ideal... sparky said the insulation tape I put round the wire was fine, but he repaired it anyway.

cheers guys... excuse my noobness

baldelectrician

daggy wrote: »

Hi,

I'm trying to wire a 1 gang two way lightswitch....

It's a little odd so far as the light at the top of the stairs is a 1 gang and the light at the bottom is a two gang.. I'm having problems with the light at the top of the stairs; it's all wired in, but when I flick the switch in the main control box downstairs it trips back to off.




That's how the original switch was wired


These are the earth wires for the original switch, one for upstairs and one for the downstairs circuit?



This is the new switch



The earth cables for the new switch

The switches are metal so I originally attempted to take the two hard wired earths out of the backbox slot and put them into the slot on the switchplate, however, I couldn't get them and thr supplementary earth that was going to run from plate to box in the slot on the faceplate as it's too small.

I tried to trim some cable off the to hardwired earths to get them in, but it still wouldn't go... So I put them back in the backbox and ran one cable from the switchplate to box instead, is this ok?

Can anyone suggest why this is tripping the circuit breaker?

I'm aa bit of a novice, so apologies for my electrical noobness.

As far as liability- the landlord is liable for the electrics in the house, but as you have altered you will be liable for the putting things you did right.

I see this often - I get called out to a fault - people have been living there some time, no problems. There are new light switch / socket fronts on but the problems only appear when things are changed

daggy

baldelectrician wrote: »

As far as liability- the landlord is liable for the electrics in the house, but as you have altered you will be liable for the putting things you did right.

I see this often - I get called out to a fault - people have been living there some time, no problems. There are new light switch / socket fronts on but the problems only appear when things are changed

Yeah, the problem of the u/slights going off has been around a while and indeed, is documented on their computers as we've had a sparky out; but, as I said to the spark, 'The problem was already there, but no doubt me moving the wires around when I was installing the new switch has obviously made the damaged insulation worse.

diable

baldelectrician wrote: »

I see this often - I get called out to a fault - people have been living there some time, no problems. There are new light switch / socket fronts on but the problems only appear when things are changed

How many times have you been called out because some one has installed a nice new light fitting and very expensive dimmer switch and to be told " but I put all the black wires together and then all the reds" and it went BANG (change cable colours for current regs)